


Food, Hugs and Snuggles

by jellyfish_arita



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Movie Night, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Fluff, Turtlecest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 00:19:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15182573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellyfish_arita/pseuds/jellyfish_arita
Summary: Leo has been acting weird in the last few months and his younger brother can't help but notice it, even when his other siblings don't. Determined to change the situation, Mikey will do anything in his hands to cheer his brother up.Literally anything.





	Food, Hugs and Snuggles

Mikey shifted in his bed, unable to fall asleep. Once again, his mind was restless, trying to find a solution for what, he believed, was a real emergency. Being worried was becoming a habit, one that he hated. That was ok for Donnie, but him? He always was carefree and he liked it that way. Still, his chest felt almost painfully heavy, having the feeling that sooner or later something would explode. The image of his older brother breaking and going crazy terrified him.

For all his brothers, Leo was the kind of turtle that the problems never reached him. Stoic, serious and always committed to his role without even blink. The Fearless Leader never showed a sign of weakness after all those years, not even after the death of their beloved father and master.

However, Mikey couldn't help but think that his attitude was just a facade that hid an infinite and deep grief. And lately things were getting worse. Leo was more quiet, more distracted and colder. The younger terrapin had found him holding his gaze on a fixed point many times, his look empty and withered. Although his other brothers had not noticed anything different in their leader, the prankster was sure that something bad was happening to him. He wanted to help him, but how? Talking? No, Leo was too stubborn to assume that something was wrong. Planning an intervention? Not that either: his other brothers thought he was paranoid; they wouldn't help. Asking some expert for help? That was simply ridiculous, they were mutant turtles, any expert would end up in the psychologist themself after seeing them.

 _“Damn it, I don't know what to do,”_ he thought troubled, his head starting to ache over the exhaustion and the stress. He was running out of ideas and the solution seemed to be unreachable.

“Well, when you don’t know what to do you can always ask to internet, right?” he asked himself, starting to doze off. "Maybe I should ask Donnie to lend me his laptop tomorrow. I need some help with this." That was the last thought he got before falling asleep, finally.

The next morning Mikey woke up earlier than usual with the heavy feeling still present on his chest. Trying to shake off the sensation, he stretched and took a deep breath, concentrating in his heartbeat: that always calmed him down. Funnily enough, that was something that he had learned with Leo long time ago, when he was just a kid and nightmares about monsters under the bed scared him. Every time that Mikey couldn’t sleep, he went to Leo’s room and his brother hugged him until he fell asleep, lulled by the sound of his heartbeat.

The turtle smiled fondly with the memory. Leonardo was always there for his brothers; caring, protecting and advising. Now it was time to return the favor.

He knew that Donnie used his room for sleep only once in the week, and that was on sundays. So before the breakfast time started, the orange went to Donnie’s lab to put his plan in motion. At the beginning the nerd refused to lend his precious laptop to his clumsy brother, but eventually he give in with the condition that he didn’t enter weird pages. Opening the navigator, Mikey went to the search bar and wrote ‘How to make someone happy’. The page loaded with thousands of results, but all of them seemed too difficult or elaborate. For a solid 30 minutes he opened pages and pages looking for a solution, adding more details to his search as ‘how to help someone stubborn to be happy’ or ‘how to know if your brother has depression’, but nothing seemed to fit in what he needed.

It was about time to go to the kitchen and his stomach was starting to growl from hunger, when he finally found a result that seemed more accurate with what he wanted. The page had a pastel colored background and a list with 6 simple steps.

*************

**Six Ways To Make Someone Happy**

  1. _Do research:_ First of all, you’re going to need to collect information about the person in question to know what can make them happy. You can’t help them to be happier if you don’t know anything about their tastes.
  2. _Attention:_ Spend time with the person in question. Try to be aware of the little details as a change in their mood or expressions. When you have that in mind, you can act according to what you think is best. For example, the person is disgusted or bothered by something? Try to change the situation to a better one.
  3. _Food:_ 80% of people says that eating something sweet or their favorite meal cheers them up. If you want to make someone happy you need to feed them with their favorite meals or snacks. You get extra points if you cook it yourself.
  4. _Compliments:_ A compliment can change their mood in ways you can’t even imagine. Look for the things you know the person is proud of in themselves or things you like about that person and use it. Compliment their hair, eyes, skin, laugh, intelligence, etc.
  5. _Share a hobby:_ Sharing a hobby with the person in question could help them to feel less alone. Try to find something fun to do together. Is important that the two of you enjoy the activity, otherwise it could be tedious for both.
  6. _Love:_ Last thing, but not less important: be physical. Unless the person has stated otherwise, we all like the affection from time to time. Hug them, caress them, snuggle with them, etc.



**Good luck!**

*************

Mikey stared at the screen, trying to memorize each step before closing the page, cleaning the search history and turning off the laptop, leaving it carefully in its place. Pleased with his job, he went to the Kitchen where his brothers waited him.

"What's up with ya, Mike? We're starving here, ya know?" Was the welcoming when he arrived. Raph was clearly annoyed by the fact that he hadn’t eaten yet.

"Good morning to you too, Raphie," Mikey answered with a smirk. "What's the problem? You can’t eat without your favorite brother at the table?” he added smugly. That was something that Mikey really enjoyed, teasing his grumpy older brother until he made him explode in rage.

The hothead looked at the prankster in anger, and Mikey could almost feel the sharp knife with which he was mentally stabbing him.

"Ha! Ya wish. Ya know that Leo doesn’t let us eat if we're not all at the fucking table," the turtle snapped, hitting the table with a fist.

"Calm down, Raph. You know that Splinter liked it this way, and we have to ... "

"Yeah, yeah. We have to honor his image and traditions. I know, Leo. Please, don't give me the endless and classic lecture and let's eat already!" Raph said with a sigh, trying to calm down his anger.

"Well then, let’s eat," Leo said impassive as he grabbed the spoon and started to eat his cereal and milk.

"Yeah, let's eat already!" Raph added sulkily, grabbing his fork and devouring his ham omelette in almost three bites.

In a few minutes, a familiar ambience settle on the table. Mikey, Raph and Don started to talk about how they had kicked foot clan’s asses last night, laughing and complimenting each other. But the youngest couldn’t help but notice that Leo was silent at the other end of the table, eating his breakfast slowly. He couldn't remember the last time that his brother showed interest in sharing a conversation with them, and that was simply sad. He missed Leo.

Maybe the katana master wanted to stay that way, but Mikey was decided to try and establish a conversation with his leader anyway. He knew enough about his brother’s tastes to collect more information about it, as the point one of the list had said, so instead he decided to go directly to the second point. ‘Spent time with the person in question’. The younger terrapin cleared his throat to get his brother's attention, but Leo was lost in his mind again. Noticing that he would need more to catch his attention, the prankster decided to address him directly. His heart was pounding hard in his chest, scared that Leo would feel annoyed by the idea of spending time with him or, more directly, refuse.

"Come on, Don't be a pussy now, Dude. He needs you," he thought, burying his nails on his thighs so hard he would leave a mark. Gathering all his courage, the youngest finally opened his mouth.

"Uhm.. Le-Leo?" he stuttered, feeling his voice like jelly and his hands sweaty, but he had managed to get his brother's attention, and that was progress already. Leo looked at him and smiled kindly, waiting for his brother to continue.

“Err, well, I was wondering..." He did a pause, trying to find the right words "If you would like to watch a movie with me? I asked Donnie to download one called ‘47 ronin’ or something like that a few days ago," he blurted out, maybe too nervous in his opinion.

Leo remained in silence for what seemed like an eternity to Mikey, thinking. The prankster was about to retract his words when he heard his brother sigh. “Sure Mike, why not? I could skip my meditation session for today. Eight o’clock sounds good to you?” He said with a hint of enthusiasm in his voice and showing a genuine smile.

“Sounds perfect!” Mikey answered too loud, unintentionally interrupting Raph and Don’s conversation. “S-Sorry guys, my bad,” he apologized, feeling his cheeks warm.

After a seconds of awkward silence, Leo started to laugh. It was a soft and crystalline laugh, almost as if his body had forgotten how to do it, but it melted Mikey’s heart.

 _“Is he… is he excited? Oh God, I think he likes the idea!”_ Mikey thought, feeling that his heart was going to explode by happiness. Leo wanted to spent time with him! He had a chance to help his brother; it wasn’t a lost cause. Right?

The day went as usual. Once they finished their breakfast Leo called them to have their training routine, then lunch, the daily patrol to check everything was good on the big city and back to the lair to enjoy some free time. Mikey noticed that as the day progressed he was more and more excited. And,for some reason, nervous at the same time.

It was still early when the young turtle decided to add the next point of the list on his ‘movie night’ plan. He wanted to make sure first that nobody was watching him, so he went to check what his brothers were doing. Don was on his lab fixing a broken computer, which was his job to earn money for their home, Raph was in his room lifting weights and Leo on the dojo practicing katas. It was the perfect time to cook without being interrupted. With his book “Japanese Cooking Made Simple”, he went to to kitchen leafing through the recipes. Opening pantry doors and the fridge, he checked that he didn’t lack anything from the list of ingredients.

“Rice, apple vinegar, canned tuna, mayo, black sesame seeds, rice flour, sugar, cornstarch, dark chocolate, soy sauce and eggs. I think I only lack of nori but that’s not a problem,” Mikey said out loud, counting the ingredients and putting them on the counter.

When the clock reached 7:30 p.m, Mikey had all the snacks ready to be eaten, all of them perfectly decorated and placed on a tray. It was almost a dinner and, if the younger was sincere, he wouldn't eat something like that on movie night. However, Mikey knew that Leo loved everything that had to do with japanese culture, and he hoped that the gesture would cheer him up.

Taking off the apron, he contemplated his work and smiled, proud of himself. This was the first time that he cooked onigiris, mochis and tamagoyaki, and still all the food looked as good as in the book. Noticing that he was covered in flour and with his hands stinking of fish, he checked the clock and sighed in relief when he realized that he still had thirty minutes left. Leaving the food under a cloche, he went to bathroom to take a shower.

When he went to the living room Leo was waiting him, sitting on the couch. He had that expression in his face again, like the deepest dark were consuming him. Panicking, Mikey ran towards him and threw himself into the couch, startling at his brother and hitting his butt too hard against his shell.

“HEY, ARE YOU READY?” he cried out with a expression mixed between shame and pain.

The blue looked at him as if he had grown another head, but his expression was normal again. “Sure, did you bring the movie?” Leo asked, trying to hold a laugh when he noticed why his brother had shouted so weirdly.

The prankster smiled and pointed at the tv. “It’s on the DVD Player already, I’m the efficiency in person, he said, bumptious. The katana master couldn’t contain any more and snorted, grabbing his stomach. “Since when you’re so funny?” he asked once he had calmed down.

“Since twenty years ago?” Mikey answered, grabbing the remote and turning on the T.V. “Oh, wait, I almost forgot. I made some food for us,” he added, getting up and heading to the kitchen. A few minutes later he was back with the tray and iced green tea.

“This is the first time that I cook japanese food, so I’m sorry if it doesn't taste so good,” Mikey said, a bit nervous but hoping that his cooking skills were enough to cover his lack on experience.

Leo remained silent, staring amazed all the snacks as if they were jewels. Swallowing the saliva that the smell had gathered in his mouth, he carefully took a mochi and give it a bite. The mochi was soft, bittersweet and it melted in his mouth.

“Wow, Mikey. Are you sure this is the first time you cook japanese food? This tastes amazing” Leo mumbled, giving a second bite and humming in appreciation.

The younger sighed relieved and realized that he had been holding his breath. “Yes! of course I’m sure!” he exclaimed, smiling and taking a mochi too. “But, you know, I’m an excellent chef. Or that’s what my clients says,” he added biting the sweet. It was, indeed, absolutely delicious.

The night went as Mikey expected, even better. They enjoyed the movie, the food and the conversation. It was midnight when they noticed that the lair was silent and they were the only ones still awake. Calling it a night, they headed upstairs between hushes and muffled laughs.

“I guess this is all for today,” Leo said with a hint of sadness in his voice, holding his door open.

“I guess so,” Mikey replied scratching the back of his head, feeling a little emptiness in his chest.

Before Leo entered his room, he looked at Mikey intensely. his eyes shone in the darkness with a light that Mikey believed he had lost. His fearless leader was still there.

“Thank you for the food and the movie night, Mike. I really enjoyed everything,” he whispered, smiling tenderly at his little brother.

“No prob, bro. We can do this again anytime you want” the younger replied, smiling back.

That night the terrapin was too excited to fall asleep. He repeated the event in his mind over and over, rejoicing in his triumph. The image of Leo smiling, laughing, pleasured by his food... The sparkle in his eyes.

He wanted to see that sparkle again on his brother's eyes, no matter what it would cost.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, this is my first time writing something long in English. I was really nervous during the whole process, but my friends and comrades encouraged me to try, and this is the result. I hope y'all enjoy this as much as I did when I was writing it. 
> 
> Special thanks to Caroimezoe who beta readed me and Reese's who helped me with the English. You guys are amazing


End file.
